1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel cell vehicle. More particularly, the present invention relates to a fuel cell vehicle in which a fuel cell can be protected from the intrusion of a member of a vehicle body in the event that a side of the vehicle body is deformed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among automobiles, fuel cell Vehicles are known in which electricity is generated by supplying hydrogen, which is a fuel gas, and oxygen, which is an oxidant gas, and in which generated electric power resulting from the electricity generation are used to drive a motor, which, in turn, drives the fuel cell vehicle.
As such a fuel cell, there exists, for example, a fuel cell (a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell) constituted by stacking a number of fuel cells in each of which a membrane electrode assembly in which a solid polymer electrolyte membrane is held between an anode-side electrode and a cathode-side electrode is held, in turn, by a pair of separators.
Incidentally, among such fuel cell vehicles, for example, as is disclosed in JP-A-2001-119815, there is known a fuel cell vehicle in which an impact detecting sensor such as a G sensor for detecting an impact is provided on a fuel cell itself. In this fuel cell vehicle, the supply of hydrogen is stopped when an Impact is applied to the fuel cell in the event that the fuel cell vehicle is involved in a collision.
The fuel cell vehicle that has been described above is superior in that the safety of the fuel cell that would be endangered by the impact applied thereto can be ensured. However, in the event that the fuel cell is deformed as a result of the deformation of a member of a vehicle body caused by a collision which generates no large impact or in the event that there occurs a collision that cannot be detected by the single acceleration sensor, there is caused a problem that such a collision cannot be detected.
The fuel cell is normally stored in a fuel cell box for protection. However, attempting to increase the strength and rigidity of the fuel cell box in anticipation of the aforesaid deformation of the fuel cell or the box storing therein the fuel cell which results from the deformation of the member of the vehicle body which is accompanied by an impact which is not large causes a problem that the weight of the vehicle body is increased by the attempt to thereby oppositely deteriorate the fuel economy.